Stephen
Terry, Director
Unto
the Least of These
Commentary
for the February 18, 2023, Sabbath School Lesson
"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord
has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up
the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from
darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord s favor and the
day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn," Isaiah 61:1-2, NIV
Two things sickened me in
preparing this week's commentary on the sabbath school lesson. The first is
that in searching for images to illustrate extreme poverty, many of those
images are claimed to be owned by major internet image management companies
like Alarmy and DeviantArt. As if the poor have not been victimized enough, companies
like these are not willing to allow free access to the images unless we pour
some money into their bulging purses. This makes them more a part of the
problem than a part of the solution. We all should be sickened by those whose only interest in
the poor is how to make money from their plight.
The second sickening realization
is that our quarterly has for six weeks shoved the plight of the poor into the
background while prioritizing increasing income to the church. While the
prophet Malachi's words have been overused to encourage such giving in order to
tell the donors there will be such a blessing they will receive that there will
not be room enough to receive it,[i] the
plight of the poor is set aside lest it interfere with the rivers of gold the
denomination is trying to direct to their vaults. Only once that point has been
made repeatedly in the first half of the quarter are we allowed to consider the
needs of the "Least of These."
It is ironic that a denomination
that has one of the largest private school systems in the world struggles to
make that education available to those most in need of education to open the
door out of poverty with the opportunities that education can provide.
Thirty to forty years ago, it was a common practice for more established
parishioners to pay the entire cost of tuition for the poor, enabling them to
attend our schools. Whole families were lifted out of poverty in this way and
often went on to become pillars of faith in the church, blessing others as they
were blessed. But somewhere along the line a different attitude came into
being. The wealthy and the denominational workers had opportunity to attend our
schools, but the poor were marginalized into the public school system. Too
often, this resulted in the loss to the denomination of these young minds and
the support they might have been able to reciprocate back to the church for the
support they had received. These children were also deprived of the intimate
contacts made in our schools that can create a network of denominational support
lasting their entire lives. While some may not feel this is such a loss, we ask
what doctor may have been able to bring healing to someone if they did not have
the necessary education? What engineer was not here to complete a project that would
relieve famine and drought in a desolate part of the globe, lifting entire
communities to a better standard of living? There are so many fields of
education that are deprived of what might have been when we do not make more of
an effort to open our schools to the poor. Sadly, while serving as school board
chair in the past, some have said to me that if we did that, they would pull their
own children from school because they did not want their children to be
associating with those kinds of children.
Something has been missed along
the way if we end up feeling like that toward the poor. Some try to excuse
their attitude by creating a category called "worthy poor." The intent being to
show that they have nothing against helping those who are worthy of the help,
although they never seem to clearly state what the guidelines are for
worthiness. Worse, though, is the discovery that this is an artificial,
unbiblical distinction for the Bible never uses the phrase "worthy poor." While
the Bible does not speak directly to the abuse of modern drugs that have become
an epidemic in society, it also does not say things like "You are the town
drunk. Therefore, you are not allowed to glean in the fields." Need is the
standard measured by love, not worthiness. If worth were the standard, would
any of us have hope of salvation? And if God can freely grant salvation to all
who wish it, is it right for us to withhold food, clothing, shelter, or
education from those having those needs if we are able to provide it?
Another irony is that we not
only have one of the largest private school systems, we have one of the largest
medical care systems in the world. Despite that, many rural areas are
underserved by doctors and nurses. Even in our cities there are medical deserts
where medical care is difficult to access. I have experienced this myself.
Though I live in a county with the second largest city of my state, I have been
unable to see a primary care doctor for over a year. A shortage of doctors is
the reason given. While I am sure there may be several reasons why this is the
case, I doubt it is because we are training future doctors to be more concerned
about the plight of the poor than to be dreaming of nice estates, expensive
vehicles, and discretionary global travel to exotic locales. I have great
respect for doctors and nurses who can set their desire for those things aside
and find a need and meet it. But even then, we might wonder how many of the
locals in that far-off land could have been put through medical training if the
same funds used to send Americans there had been used to lift the local people
up in their ability to care for themselves medically. We no longer live in the days
where third world countries consisted of people living in mud or grass huts and
there were no indigenous medical schools to train the people to care for one
another. Even in the past decade or two we have opened medical schools in the
Philippines and in Central Africa that have added to medical matriculations in
underserved parts of the world. In addition, many of our colleges and
universities have been graduating thousands of nurses. It begs the question as
to why we are not then making more of an impact in caring for the poor and
needy, even here in the United States, where Adventism began?
While I cannot speak for
individual choices and situations, well-trained doctors and nurses can earn a
great deal more money by specializing in certain fields as opposed to primary
care. Even a nurse can find themselves earning as much as two million dollars a
year if they end up CEO of a health care organization. When faced with such
temptation, it must seem like taking a vow of poverty to concern oneself with
the needs of the poor. Little wonder then that the denomination does not place
as much emphasis on self-supporting work as it does on tapping the streams of
wealth that flow from specialized medical employment. Tithe alone from the two-million-dollar
income of one person would amount to $200,000 dollars per year. A local church of the
poor and needy simply is not going provide that kind of nourishment to the denominational
coffers. Even a small church of tradesmen will be hard put to equal that tithe
output.
Some might quote the proverb
that a rising tide raises all ships as a defense for the increasing wealth held
by both the denomination and certain classes within the denominational membership,
but I am not seeing it. Despite ludicrous wealth in some circles, I see growing
poverty in others. I grew up in poverty. When other kids had bicycles, I had
shoe leather. When other kids replaced their worn-out shoes when needed, I had
to make do until next school year. It was a time of one income households, and
my father worked 40-hour weeks at a low-level white collar job for the federal
government. But with four children in pre-birth control America, he struggled
to keep the family fed, clothed, and housed. However, despite those challenges,
I never saw poverty in the United States like I see today. Although we read of
them in the history books about the Great Depression, we did not have huge
homeless encampments when I was growing up like we do now. There are those who
are blessed with wealth, and who manage to paint a picture for themselves and
anyone who will listen that everything is getting better, and the future is rosy.
But for those who, for various reasons, have been unable to climb to those
levels of society or those who have fallen from the wealth stratosphere like
lucifer falling from heaven, the world they experience is not like that. It is
a mean scramble for survival, where even pennies, nickels, and dimes can be
hard to come by.
Judging by his Sermon on the
Mount found in Matthew, chapters 5 through 7, it is a world Jesus understood
well, a world he ministered to personally. He healed the sick, expecting
nothing in return. He fed thousands, again expecting nothing in return. He even
made sure the naked were clothed.[ii]
One, like Mahatma Gandhi,[iii]
might rightfully expect that Jesus' followers would be doing the same,
especially in light of the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats in Matthew, chapter
25, or the admonitions found in Isaiah, chapter 58. But we are more likely to
be found chasing the gold, desiring it no less than the denomination does. We
have had good teachers through the decades who have by example taught us that
gold is the ultimate panacea. Little wonder then that we are so rarely to be
found among the poor and needy as Christ was. Instead, we seek out those who
are financially equal to or better than ourselves, hoping to learn by their
example rather than Christ's. And that is not a good thing.